Run
by Dragonrider42
Summary: I'm always running. Running away from my enemies. Running to save my friends. Running to save myself. But now I don't have to run anymore. I have a home, I have friends. But there are some things you just can't run from. Xavier/OC
1. Chapter 1

**AN:**

**Welcome to Run! This story takes place during the First Class era. It's mainly from the point of view of my OC, Amber. In case you were wondering, this story does tie in to Lost a little, more so near the end. Read on! :)**

* * *

I was scared. More scared than I had ever been in my life. I was running faster than anyone should ever have to run. My breath was coming in short, fast pants. I couldn't take it much longer. So I fell to the ground, and prayed that my death would be quick. I prayed that my pursuers would have mercy.

"She's barely conscious." A man's voice said. "Amber, are you alright?"

I didn't say anything. _Just kill me. _I pleaded, though my mouth had dried out long before.

_I won't kill you. I want to help you. _A voice in my head said softly. It sounded like the voice of the man who had just asked me if I was okay.

_Let me die. _I pleaded. _I'm already going insane. Just let me die._

_No. _The man said. And that one word changed my life forever.

I was living in a mansion. It was incredible! In all my life, the best house I had ever had was a tent. But now I was living in a mansion, imagine that!

The man who had saved me that day was called Charles Xavier, or Dr. X, as his colleagues called him. He was a mutant, a telepath. The voice I had heard in my head wasn't my delusional brain, it was his voice.

"Amber?" Charles asked.

I turned to face him. "Yes?"

Charles had brown hair, and eyes that made you want to spill all your secrets to him. Many girls would have said he was handsome, but I didn't notice.

"Amber, can we talk?" Charles asked. With anyone else, I would have snapped back a witty retort, something along the lines of, "we are talking." But Charles was different. So I just said, "Sure."

"One week ago, I was using Cerebro." Charles began. "Cerebro is a powerful device that allows me to detect mutants. And I found a very powerful mutant just a mile away from where I was."

"Me." I said quietly.

"So I drove there, and found you running away as fast as you could. Any normal human would have fallen down dead hours ago, but you kept on going. I called out for you to stop, but you just ran faster. And you know what happened after that." Charles said.

"Yes." I said. I had learned that most of the time, it was better to say little or nothing at all. This wasn't one of those times.

"But what I didn't understand, and what I still don't know, is why you were running. Did I scare you off, or were you already running?" Charles certainly saw the reluctance in my eyes, but he pressed on. "If so, who was chasing you?"

I took a deep breath. I was about to tell him what I had never told anyone before. But I didn't feel scared. I felt… relieved. That I could finally confide in someone. Someone who would believe me.

"I was running from Sebastian Shaw."


	2. Chapter 2

Charles stared at me. I wondered if he even knew who Sebastian Shaw was. "Go on." He said at last.

"Shaw..." I trailed off. "Shaw loved to... bend other mutants to his will. I remember a man named Eric, and he told me Shaw had killed his parents. After that, I knew I had to escape. One day, I was let outside for a few minutes. That was enough for me to run away. I just kept on running. When I heard you behind me, I thought you were Shaw. Then after I fell, I realized that you were someone different." I explained.

Charles didn't say anything for a while. "So you ran all that way."

I instantly regretted what I had said. "Well, it wasn't that far."

"Over a hundred miles, approximately." Charles said. He waited.

"I-" I didn't know what to say. I didn't trust him completely, not just yet. I had lived as a slave for all my life, I wasn't ready to believe that not everyone wanted to control you. But somehow I knew that I should trust him. So I said, "My power is running. I can run very fast if I want to, but if I just run normally, I can keep running for days. I almost never get tired, but after a very long time, I have to stop." The words flowed out of my mouth unbidden, but I didn't really mind. It all depended on how he reacted.

"So that's how you ran so far." Charles said. "That really is incredible."

I smiled. Maybe here, I could be accepted.

"Tomorrow we're going to find more mutants." Charles announced. "I've decided to start a sort of school for mutant kids."

"Including me?" I asked.

"Of course including you!" Charles exclaimed. "You're the reason why I started this whole thing."

I smiled. "Thanks."

"No problem." Charles grinned. "Though I have to warn you, some of the mutants we'll find are a little... disturbing."

"Oh, I've seen disturbing." I said, picturing all the grotesque mutants that Shaw had experimented on.

"No, I mean..." Charles trailed off. "Never mind. You'll meet Angel tomorrow."


	3. Chapter 3

"Come on, Amber!" Charles banged on my door. I was sleeping in one of the thousands of rooms the mansion had. Somehow Charles never got lost.

"Coming." I called. I got dressed, and found Charles and a man who looked vaguely familiar standing by a car outside.

"Lightning?" The other man asked incredulously.

"Eric?" I asked. "You escaped! I thought Shaw had killed you!"

"No, I managed to get away." Eric said. "How did you get here?"

"Charles found me a mile from here." I explained. "I was running away."

Eric nodded.

"You two know each other?" Charles asked in surprise.

"Yeah, we were both held captive by Shaw." I told him. "Eric vanished about a month ago. We all thought Shaw had killed him."

"Who's we?" Charles asked.

"No one you would want as a student." Eric answered the question that Charles was really asking. "All servants of Shaw."

"Or dead or dying." I added. "That's what happens if you rebel."

Charles looked a little sick at the way I had put it so nonchalantly.

"Well, come on!" Eric said cheerily. "Get in the car, let's go!"

We got in the car, and within half an hour we arrived at our destination.

"Umm..." I said. "I am _not _going in there."

"It's where we can find Angel!" Charles said.

"Sure." I rolled my eyes. "You two go, I'll stay here and guard the car."

Ten minutes later we were back on the road. Sitting beside me was a girl with tattoos of wings.

"So you have dragonfly wings, is there anything else you can do?" I asked.

"Yeah." said the girl, "This." and she shot a fireball out of her mouth that ignited the roof of the car. We spun off the road, crashing into the field around the mansion.

"Oops."


	4. Chapter 4

The top of the car was burned off, so Angel just flew up and out. I was trying to unlock the door, when Eric simply touched it and it opened. He winked at me.

I stepped out of the car, and pried Charles's door open. Thankfully he hadn't been hurt by the flames.

"Charles?" I asked him as we walked a safe distance away from the burning car. "I think teaching mutants how to _safely use _their powers could be a good thing to add to your curriculum."

Charles just nodded, and got out of the wrecked car. "Okay, everyone listen up," He called, "The car probably won't explode, but we should get away from here just in case. I'll sent someone out to put out the flames."

Not at all reassured, we walked the short distance to the mansion. I could have run there in half a second, but no one else could, so I walked with them.

When we stepped inside, Charles said, "Eric, can you show Angel and her room? I need to go get Hank and Sean."

"Sure." Eric said. He and Angel left.

"So we're finding Hank and Sean?" I asked Charles.

"Actually, I already found Hank, I just need to pick up him and Raven. And then we need to go to the Aquarium." Charles said.

"Um, why?"

"That's where Sean was the last time I checked. Hopefully he's not stirring up too much trouble." Charles said.

We left, and only once we had left the mansion did I realize we didn't have a car.

"Charles, the car's a burnt mess. How are we going to get to wherever we're going?" I asked.

"I have another car over here." Charles said, leading me to the side of the mansion. "We can use this one."

I laughed out loud. "You have multiple cars just hanging around your giant mansion?"

"Yeah." Charles said. "What's so funny?"

I was laughing so hard tears were rolling down my cheeks. "You have a _mansion_! With probably a _dozen cars _piled around it. Sheesh, a week ago I would have given anything for a _tent_!" I ranted.

Charles just laughed.


	5. Chapter 5

Once we were driving away, I asked him, "Who's Raven? You said we were going to find Hank and Sean, but then you mentioned Raven. Can she fly or something?"

"No." Charles said. "She's a shapeshifter, basically."

"That's cool." I said, impressed.

"And Hank has hands for feet." Charles went on, "And Sean can scream. A lot."

I started laughing again. "That's a useful talent."

Charles laughed, too. "I mean, he has a sonic screech. He can scream at different resonances, and so he can shatter glass, for example, or use a sort echolocation. Although he might not know how to do it yet."

"Well, that's why you're teaching them." I said. The car stopped at a college. "They're at a college?"

"Just for the moment." Charles said. "Raven wanted to see how well her powers were doing, and Hank decided to tag along." He smiled as two people came up to our car. Charles got out, and so did I.

"Raven!" Charles exclaimed, wrapping his arms around a girl with long blonde hair.

I saw that the other guy looked a bit jealous. "Hey." I said. "I'm Amber."

"I'm Hank." He said.

Charles let go of Raven, and shook Hank's hand. "Good to see you."

We all piled into the car, and Hank asked, "Do we still need to pick up Angel and Sean?"

"Only Sean." I replied. "Angel's already at the mansion."

Soon we were at the aquarium. "Where is he?" I asked. "How on Earth are we supposed to find him?"

"Look over there." Charles pointed to an exhibit where all the fish had just been sent tumbling back like a strong current had pushed them away from the glass. "Might be worth a look."

It was fairly easy to convince Sean to come with us. He was bored of just scaring the fish all day, and once we proved we were mutants, too (Charles reading his mind, and Raven turning into an identical copy of Hank) he came with us back to the mansion.


	6. Chapter 6

Waiting for us at the mantion was a woman from the CIA. Her name was Moira Mactaggert. "Hello, Professor Xavier." she said. "We would like you and the other mutants to come stay at the CIA headquarters. Just for a night, you understand."

"Of course we'll come." Charles said politely.

If only we could have known that disaster would strike that night.

We were going to an American CIA base. It was like a nightmare. Surrounded by humans who wanted to imprison/kill/dissect/study me.

"It's not that bad, Amber." Charles reassured me. "Don't worry."

"Not that bad?" I asked. "It's terrible!"

"Amber, it's only for one night." Charles said. "And we'll all be in the same area, so if anything happens, you can run faster than anything else on the planet, and you'll have a girl who can shoot fireballs and a guy who can control all of the Earth's metal on your side."

I laughed. "And a telepath."

"And a telepath." Charles agreed.

So maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

Soon Angel, Raven, Hank, Sean and I were partying in our room. Hank was hanging onto the fan with his feet, and was getting spun around while whacking into people. Raven was amusing herself by morphing each of us at perfectly timed moments to say things so that we would each think that someone else had just insulted us. Sean let out a screech, and the giant window that faced the courtyard shattered. Suddenly the statue in the center of the courtyard was chopped in half by a whirling red light.


	7. Chapter 7

"Hello, folks!" announced the newcomer, a boy about our age. "I'm Alex Summers."

"Good to meet you, Alex Summers!" Angel called back good-naturedly. "Are you another mutant?"

"Obviously." Sean said. "He cut the statue in two with his red frisbee of doom."

"Some people call me Havok." Alex boasted to Angel.

"Ooh, let's all have codenames!" Raven exclaimed. "Say your real name, your codename, and your power."

We all sat down on the couch.

"So I'm Alex. Havok. And I can send out these thin red lasers things. It's slightly chaotic, hence my codename."

"I'm Raven. I want to be called Mystique." She smiled. "I can transform in other people."

"I'm Hank." Hank said, and thought for a moment. "I don't really have a codename."

"Well, I do!" Sean chirped, and we all laughed. "I'm Sean, and my codename is Banshee!" He let out an ear-piercing wail.

"I'm Angel." Angel said. "I figure that can work for my codename, too." She stood up, and her tattoos peeled off her back to form wings. She fluttered up into the air, then came back down.

"I'm Amber." I said. "My codename is Lightning, since I can run faster than light."

"Really?" Banshee gaped at me.

"Well, close to it, at least." I amended.

Our party continued late into the night, until Charles and Eric came to investigate.


	8. Chapter 8

"Hey guys!" Raven called to Charles and Eric.

"Alex, did you wreck that statue?" Eric asked.

"Yeah, I did." Havok said.

"No, you have to call him Havok!" Raven protested. "We all have codenames now."

"Uh huh." Charles looked like he wanted to fall down and sleep. He must have been talking the CIA.

"You're Magneto." Raven said, pointing at Eric. "And you can be Dr. X!" She pointed at Charles.

"Well, I think Doctor X wants to get some sleep, Raven." I said gently.

"Dr. X would like that a lot." Charles flashed me a thankful smile.

Once Charles and Eric had left, we began to settle down. Sean was just drifting off to sleep when we heard a loud bang come from high in the sky.

Then a security guard fell a thousand feet down to earth, landing on the ruined statue with a sickening thump.

THUMP! A body hit the ground. Everyone jumped and backed away, but I cautiously approached it.

More bodies fell. It was as if it was raining men. I wanted to run away, as fast as I could-

I couldn't run, I had to help. These people had trusted me, helped me, I couldn't abandon them when they needed it.

"What do we do?" Raven whispered.

"We wait. Whoever is attacking has to be looking for something. This is very well thought out, whatever he's looking for, he's going to confront directly," I told her.

I think we all knew what this person wanted.


	9. Chapter 9

I was facing the window that lead to the outside grounds, a place of grass and peace now turned to wind and dust. There was a loud _BAMF_ behind me and I whirled around.

There was a group of people standing in front of me. I didn't recognize any of them, save one. The man in the middle.

He stood there like a king looking over his subjects, picking out which will be the best for his imperial army. His eyes flitted across each of us, pausing once or twice to get a good view of what he was dealing with.

This man was Sebastian Shaw.

There he was, the king of kings. Or at least, so he thought. _Sebastian Shaw, we meet again. _I thought, _Except now I'm not on my own. Now there are other mutants beside me. And maybe, just maybe we can beat you._

Shaw stood beside two of his henchmen. There was a creature that looked like devil, and there was a man who seemed to be holding a small tornado. "My fellow mutants," He began.

A security guard snuck up behind him, about to shoot him, when the devil suddenly disappeared in a puff of red smoke, and reappeared holding the guard by his neck.

"Kill him, Azazel." Shaw ordered.

Azazel vanished, then reappeared as a tiny red dot in the sky. Then Azazel was back beside Shaw and the guard was plummeting to his death. I looked away when he landed.

"My fellow mutants," Shaw continued, "I offer you a choice today. Come with me, and you can live free from the humans."

"And the alternative? Live free as mutants?" I asked him impulsively.

Shaw didn't reply.

"You are better than the humans! What have they ever done for you?" he asked. "Only together can we throw off the shackles that humans forced upon us! We could live like Kings!" his head turned to Angel, Raven and I, "and Queens."

I just stared at him. Sure, it seemed nice and all, but he was talking about a revolution. I didn't want a revolution. I don't think that humans deserve to die!

Suddenly I noticed Angel. She walked up to Shaw, and nodded at him. "You're right." She said, standing beside him.


	10. Chapter 10

"Angel, no! You don't know what you're getting into!" I protested.

There was no reply. I looked up and Shaw was gone. There was just a red cloud where Azazel and the others had gone.

"Come on, let's go. We have to find Charles and Eric." I said.

They were already in our car by the time Havok and I raced up to them. Mystique, Beast, and Banshee were crammed into the middle, and Havok and I quickly jumped into the two chairs in the back. Charles started the car, and we zoomed away from the CIA base.

"What happened?" Eric called back to us.

"Shaw happened." I told him grimly.

"And Azazel and Riptide." Havok added. "Riptide was the tornado dude." He explained.

"I got that." Charles nodded.

"Are we going back to the mansion?" Mystique asked.

"It's the safest place I can think of, so yes." Eric replied.

Soon we pulled up in front of the castle-like house. We all leapt out of the car, and raced into the mansion.

"We're safe here." Charles said, breathing hard. "I don't sense any enemies."

"What happened to Angel?" Eric demanded.

"Angel joined Shaw." I said, and Charles looked aghast. We were silent for a moment.

"Well, I'd better call the CIA and make sure they don't blame us for this. Many people will hasten to blame all mutants for the murders Shaw caused tonight." Charles said grimly.

And unfortunately, he was right.


	11. Chapter 11

The next day, I was walking around the mansion with Charles.

"So." I said to Charles. "How are people reacting to this?"

"Not well." Charles frowned. "There are already riots beginning. 'Down with the mutants' and other messages of the like."

I leaned against the wall for support. I had escaped from the clutches of an evil mutant, but was I any better off in the hands of the humans? "What happened to Moira?" I asked.

"She'll come here once she's helped calm down the chaos." Charles explained.

I raise an eyebrow. "How did you organize that?"

Charles tapped the side of his head, "I'm a telepath, remember?"

"So you can read my mind." I was discomforted by this. It was an absolute invasion of privacy.

"I _can_." Charles said, "But I won't. I won't ever read your mind without our permission."

I smiled. "Thank you."

Charles sat down on a bench, and rested his head in his hands.

"Charles?" I asked, worried. "Are you okay?"  
He nodded, and took a deep breath. "It was just so.. overwhelming. People falling, screaming for help, pleading for someone to save them. I could hear all of them, all at once."

I sat down next to him. "I'm sorry." We sat like that for a little longer, then I decided to change the subject, and ask a question that had been on my mind for a while. "So you seem to know Raven really well." I commented.

"Yes." Charles said.

I didn't know how to word it, so I just blurted out, "Is she your girlfriend?"


	12. Chapter 12

"No!" Charles exclaimed immediately. "She's my sister."

"Oh. Sorry." I apologized.

"It's okay. We're not related by blood, but she's my adopted sister, at least." Charles explained.

"Good." I said. "That's good."

"Is it?" Charles was confused. "Well, it gives Hank less competition."

I smiled. He had noticed, too. "So if she's a shapeshifter, does she have a true form that she goes back to?" I asked.

"Er, yeah." Charles said awkwardly. "Her natural form is sort of... blue. And scaly. With yellow eyes and red hair."

"Oh." I said, surprised. "That's odd."

"Yeah." Charles said. "It makes it harder for her to hide from humans. If she doesn't concentrate, her form will falter, and she'll transform back into a blue alien-looking girl."

"That would be a problem." I agreed.

We looked at each other and laughed.

I was still worried by how tired Charles seemed. "You should get some rest." I told him.

I need to contact the CIA!" Charles protested.

"No, you need to sleep." I said firmly. "Come on, you won't do anyone any good if you're falling asleep on the job."

Charles was about to argue, but then he just sighed. "Okay." He stood. "If the CIA calls, or anything at all happens, wake me up."

I nodded.

Charles smiled. "Thanks, Amber." Then he left.

"He's oblivious." A voice said from behind me. I turned to see Eric grinning at me.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"Oh, come on, it's obvious." Eric scoffed. "He's the only one who doesn't see it."

I shrugged, not wanting to say anything. I got up, and walked away.


	13. Chapter 13

I was sitting outside, bored, when Charles came up to me. "I need your help." He said.

"For what?" I asked him, standing up.

"I want to train Hank to run. I think that if he wanted to, he could run faster than any Olympic Athlete. He just needs to know how." Charles explained.

"I'll do my best, but remember that for me it's a natural mutation. Running is my power. For Hank, running may only be a side effect of his power." I warned Charles.

We ended up at the circular gravel path that led around the mansion.

"Now, Hank," Charles said, "Your goal is to beat me in a race, and run faster than me. Amber is just here to help you, there's no way you could outrun her."

Hank nodded, and we lined up on the path.

"Ready! Set! GO!" Charles yelled.

I streaked forward, and had looped around the mansion ten times before Hank and Charles finished their lap. Charles beat Hank, but he was breathing hard.

"That was very good, Hank." He panted, "But I have a better idea. Take your shoes off."

"What?" Hank asked. "Why?"

"Just try it." Charles instructed him.

In the next race, I had only run nine laps before Hank finished his.

"Very nicely done, Hank!" Charles congratulated him. "Good work!"

By the end of the day I could only run five laps in the time it took Hank to run one.

After training Hank, Charles was exhausted. I was barely tired at all, due to my power, but Charles looked like he was about to collapse.

"I'm a bloody telepath, not a mutant designed for running." He panted. "Never again. You train him from now on."

_Oh, yeah, Mystique will like that. _I thought wryly.

"What now?" I asked.

"We need to train Havok." Charles said, "And we need to do it very carefully."


	14. Chapter 14

How we accomplished Havok's training without dying I'll never really know. When, as the final test, Charles and I had to stand next to a foam statue, and Charles told Havok to chop the statue in half, I almost ran to China. Almost. But if Charles had to go through it, well, then so could I.

Finally the training was done. Charles and I had trained Havok, Hank, and Mystique. Eric had trained Banshee (AKA- pushed him off the roof.)

When Charles and I were taking a walk by the lake, Charles stopped. "You know, we never really trained you."

"Well, we didn't train you or Eric, either." I pointed out.

"I trained Eric." Charles told me, "And I started this whole thing, so I don't need training."

"Well, then what do you have in mind for me?" I asked him. "Run around the world a couple times?"

"While I don't doubt that you could do that, I think it would be better if you tried something a bit... different." Charles pointed at the lake. "If you ran the fastest you could, do you think you could walk on the surface of the lake?"

I gaped at him. "You mean, walk on water?"

Charles nodded.

"I-" I fell silent. What was the worst that could happen? I could sink in the middle of the lake. But I was a good swimmer. "I'll try it." I said.

Charles pulled me into a hug, then let go. "Good luck!" He said, his eyes twinkling.

I braced myself, then began to run.


	15. Chapter 15

My feet pounded on the surface of the water, and with each step I worried I would fall in. But it was just like running on wet grass. I sunk in a little, so I ran faster. Suddenly I saw land in front of me, and then I was tumbling onto hard ground. The change was so sudden that I fell onto the beach. I lay there for a moment. I had just walked on water. I grinned.

I got up, and looked back at the lake. I wasn't exactly sure where to aim, so I just started running.

I ran and ran and ran. Finally I saw the shore, and skidded to a halt, sinking a little as I stopped just before the sand. I looked around. I could see the mansion a little ways away, so I ran towards it. I found Charles standing by the lake, staring towards the other side.

"Boo!" I said, and he spun around in surprise. "My aim was a little off, so I came back via land." I explained.

Charles grinned, "I can't believe that actually worked! That was incredible!"  
I reached out, and pulled him into a hug. We stood there, holding each other. I closed my eyes. _I never want to let him go, _I thought. Then I tensed. Had he heard me? He said he would never read my mind. But Charles didn't say anything, and I relaxed.

Charles pulled away, smiling. "I can't think of any other training, really."

I laughed. "Make me try to fly?"

Charles shook his head, "Leave the flying to Sean and Angel."

I nodded, relieved. "I'm scared of heights." I admitted.

"I'm scared of…" Charles trailed off into silence.

"Charles! Amber!" Raven yelled, racing up to us. "Hank's gone!"


	16. Chapter 16

We all stood in the hanger. A huge black plane lay in front of us. We all wore suits we had found in a box in Hank's lab.

After Raven came to get us, Charles and I went to Hank's lab. It was trashed, debris strewn all around. We hadn't seen him since then.

"What is this thing?" I asked, staring at the sleek black plane.

"It's the Blackbird," said a voice, "I designed it."

We all turned to look as a figure stepped out from behind the Blackbird. It was covered in blue fur, and had yellow eyes.

"Hank?" I stepped forward, "Hank, is that you?"

The creature nodded, then looked at Raven. "The cure didn't work."

"No, Hank, don't you see?" Raven walked up to him, and stood facing Hank. "This is truly who you were meant to be." Raven smiled at him. "You're beautiful."

I smiled, then sighed as Eric commented sarcastically, "Yeah, you never looked better."

Hank spun around and growled at him.

Havok laughed. "I think we have a codename for you!" Hank glared at him.

"Beast," Havok said.

Hank smiled.

We all boarded the Blackbird, and Hank sat down in the pilot seat.

"You know how to drive this thing?" I asked him.

Hank nodded, and we lifted off into the air.

As we flew, Charles explained, "Sebastian Shaw is up to something new. He is trying to start a war between the US and the Soviet Union."

"He's trying to start World War Three!" Sean exclaimed.

Charles nodded, then went on, "We have to stop him. Right now, Shaw is in a submarine somewhere in this ocean. And I know how to find him."


	17. Author's Note 1

**AN:**

**Hello readers!... if there are any. Before I post the rest of the story, I want people to review! I don't know if anyone has read this story, so I need some reviews before I post the rest. Thanks!**


	18. Chapter 18

**AN:  
Hey guys! I just realized I forgot to post the next chapter! Oops... So here's TWO chapters! Please review!**

* * *

The wind gusted against my face. We had opened the bottom of the Blackbird so Sean could scream into the water.

Crazy, I know. But it was working. Sean's sonic powers served as echolocation, and as he screamed into the ocean, he was really scanning for the metal submarine.

I edged backward so I was far away from the gaping hole in the plane. I was terrified of heights.

The Blackbird lurched, and I reached out frantically for something to hold onto.

Someone grabbed my hand, and pulled me away from the hole. "Careful," Charles said, "Don't fall out of the plane."

"I'm not planning on it," I said. My heart was beating fast, but I had a feeling it wasn't as much because of hole in the plane as it was because Charles was still holding my hand.

"You're scared of heights, right?" Charles asked me, "I remember you told me."

I remembered after I had run across the lake, and he had suggested I try flying. "You never told me what you were afraid of."

Charles was silent for a moment, then said, "I'm scared of losing the people I care about."

"Oh," I said quietly. The plane shifted again, but I wasn't scared of falling out of the plane. Not when Charles was holding onto my hand so tightly, not when his eyes made me feel like I was frozen in place.

_I'm scared of losing you. _The words slid into my mind, and I knew Charles hadn't meant for me to hear. But our eyes met, and his face flushed.

"You heard that, didn't you," he whispered.

"Yep," I said, and I couldn't help but smile.

Charles looked at me, then pulled me close to him. I held onto him as the plane lurched again.

"Charles," I started to say.

"I found it!" Sean called, and Charles looked at me for a moment longer, and then turned to look down at Sean.

"I found the submarine," Sean repeated, "What now?"

"We need to send Eric out," Charles said, "Eric, you need to levitate the submarine out of the water. Hank will fly us to the beach, and you can drop the submarine there."

Eric nodded, then looked dubiously at the hole in the bottom of the plane.

"Eric, go!" Charles said loudly over the roar of the wind. Eric climbed over to the open bottom of the plane, and swung himself down onto the landing gear so he stood directly over the ocean.

Eric held out his hands and closed his eyes. I could tell how hard it was for him to use his powers.

Suddenly there was a rushing sound and a huge metal object rose out of the water, dripping so much it was like a rain cloud over the ocean. Eric's hands trembled, and as the Blackbird flew toward the shore, Eric had to use more and more energy to keep the submarine in the air.

We were almost at the beach when Eric dropped the submarine.


	19. Chapter 19

**AN: **

**And here's another chapter! Review, please!**

* * *

The submarine fell back into the water with a splash.

"Come on, Eric," Charles yelled, "You can do this!"

Eric looked at us, and I saw the exhaustion in his eyes. He wasn't strong enough.

I pulled away from Charles and edged forward so I was near the hole in the plane. I was terrified, but I knew what I had to do.

"Amber!"Charles hissed, "Get back!"

"I have to help him," I said, looking at Charles.

He stared at me for a long moment. "Be careful," He said softly.

"I will," I said, and I took his hand for a brief moment. Then I let go.

I swung myself onto the landing gear beside Eric. "You can do this, Eric," I told him, "Remember who's in the submarine? Sebastian Shaw. The man who captured us and forced us to use our powers."

"The man who murdered my mother in cold blood," Eric said with gritted teeth, "I remember." And he raised his hands again. The submarine rose higher and higher until it was out of the water. Eric's hands were trembling so much it seemed he was about to lose control again.

"Shaw's about to start a war, Eric. We need to stop him," I said, "You just have to hold the submarine for a little bit longer, then you can let it drop onto the beach."

Eric nodded, and his hands steadied a little. He raised his hands higher, and in one fluid motion he threw the submarine onto the beach.

The Blackbird jerked, and I slid off the landing gear.

For a moment I held onto the edge, and reached out to Eric. His eyes were wide as he reached toward me-

I lost my grip, and my hands slid down further. The last thing I heard before I fell was Charles' anguished cry.

"Amber!"

And then I was falling.


End file.
